Daredevil Holidays
As well as having one of the worst album covers ever conceived, Steely Dan’s 1972 debut Can’t Buy a Thrill has an extremely misleading title. There are all sorts of thrills you can buy, all over the world. Here’s a quick round-up:
Fairly dangerous thrills
Skydiving
Along with bungee jumping, skydiving must have the lowest effort/adrenaline ratio of any human activity. You simply jump off a high thing, and pull a parachute cord – some parachutes even work without cords, but it’s best to check this before you jump.
Where to do it: Germany, Dubai, Kent
Ice climbing
Ice climbing is the anti-skydiving – it’s very hard work. You need a lot of strength and endurance to support your own weight the whole way up.
To be fair, some slopes are fairly easy. Conveniently, there’s a grading system to tell you what you’re letting yourself in for – it runs from one (low angle, fairly easy) to seven (you are nuts).
Where to do it: Finland, Norway, Iceland
Tornado chasing
While severe bad weather would ruin most people’s holidays, some people go out of their way to try and find it, and several companies offer storm-chasing holidays.
There are about 1,000 tornadoes per year in the USA, or three a day, and most of them happen in a part of central USA called Tornado Alley, so ‘chasers’ do have a reasonable chance of finding one.
Where to do it: USA, Argentina, Bangladesh
Volcano surfing
Volcano surfing was invented in 2005 by a tour guide who had grown up sandboarding in Australia, and decided to add a new twist to the sport. He started riding on the Cerro Negra volcano in Nicaragua, which has erupted 20 times in 160 years.
This remains the world centre for volcano surfing. Most boarders ride sitting down, due to the hard surface and high speeds (record: 54mph).
Where to do it: Nicaragua
And some safer ones
Zorbing
Zorbing was invented in 1994, though hamsters had been doing something similar for decades. The human equivalent uses a softer ball, goes much faster, and has endless comic potential. Just think what Chaplin could have done with a Zorb.
The home of Zorbing is Rotorua, New Zealand, where the ball’s inventors have their own run. They currently have an open challenge: the first person to complete the run without falling over wins a cash prize.
Where to do it: New Zealand, Switzerland, Scotland
Ballooning
This is both very safe and physically not demanding – you could bring your elderly relatives – and there’s still the thrill of being 2,000 feet up. There are even more sedate activity days you can do, which elderly relatives would love even more, such as a trip on a steam train or being pampered at a spa, though neither of these could honestly be described as a ‘daredevil holiday’. Ballooning is just about risky enough to be included.
Where to do it: South Africa, Egypt, Somerset
Watching exciting things on TV
A poor substitute, really – not recommended, except for the chronically accident-prone, who might want to avoid most of the above activities.
Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
Posted by admin
on January 12, 2012. Filed under Adventures.
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